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Bee Shapiro on Embracing Career Risk, Leveraging Your Outsider Perspective, and Why Reinvention Is Always Possible

Feb 12, 2023

Bee Shapiro, a writer who transitioned from law to covering fashion and beauty for the New York Times, discusses embracing career risk, leveraging her outsider perspective, and the importance of reinvention. She shares her journey of launching Ellis Brooklyn, a clean fragrance brand, and the challenges she faced as an Asian woman in a male-dominated industry. She also talks about balancing motherhood and work, navigating the challenges of being an employee and an entrepreneur, and the joy of fragrance in creating beautiful moments.

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ANECDOTE

Leap from Law to Writing

Bee Shapiro quit her law firm job after less than a year despite having no plan and debt.
This fearless leap helped her discover her passion for writing and a new career path.

ANECDOTE

Accidental Beauty Career Shift

Bee accepted the beauty editor role at the New York Times almost by default.
This accidental pivot became a career highlight and deep passion for her.

ADVICE

Take Risks to Find Passion

To find what you love in your career, take risks and put yourself out there.
Fear is normal, but courage to act despite it leads to fulfillment.

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How many times can you reinvent yourself? The answer lies in how many career risks you are willing to take. For Bee Shapiro, it's been many. After starting a career at a major law firm, Bee leveraged her strong skills and love of writing and pitched herself cold to the New York Times, where she landed a job covering fashion. When the Time's beauty columnist left, she raised her hand to take on beauty. It turned out to be one of the best things to happen in her career.

When Bee became pregnant, she started cleaning up her beauty routine and found there were no sophisticated, clean options for fragrance. This was 2013 and the beginning of clean beauty as we know it today. Skincare and makeup had already made exciting strides, but fragrance was still stuck in another era where ingredients were almost intentionally murky. There was a lot to clear up, but Bee saw a lot of possibilities.

Ellis Brooklyn officially debuted in June 2015, named after her daughter, Ellis. Ellis Brooklyn is carried at Sephora, Ulta, Credo, Revolve, and many more retailers. At the beginning of Bee's beauty brand journey, she faced challenges being an Asian woman in an industry dominated by Caucasian French males. But being an outsider proved to be an asset and gave her a unique perspective and a distinct point of view in the beauty industry.

"I think in order to find what you love to do as your career. It's very similar to finding the love of your life. If you're going to fall in love with somebody or find a partner, you have to take a risk, and that's really putting yourself out there for whatever it is. It's terrifying. A lot of people are not willing to take that risk."

In this episode, Bee takes us on her journey and shares all the times she questioned herself on what she was doing. We talk about how she navigated her side hustle while maintaining her full-time job and how she organizes her time juggling her writing, company, and being a mom of two young daughters. Through her story, we learn how reinvention is always possible, but the older you get, the more commitment you have to put into it.